The History & Origins of DRUZE

The Druze religion entered these communities as a result of the efforts of a Fatimid religious leader of Persian origin, Hamza ibn Ali (Hamza), to record a new Ismailite sect of Islam during the reign of Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (996-1021) in Cairo. As the unity of the Sunni Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad (750-1258) began to weaken in the late 9th and 10th century, religious schisms within the Islam assumed great political importance. The Fatimids, who seized control of Egypt in 969 were members of the Ismaili sect, a plane section of the Shia who had split with the Sunnis afterwards the death of the Prophet in 632 A.D. and the rejection by the dominant Quaraysh tribe of the claim of the Prophet's first cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib (Ali), to be the rightful imam or community leader. After Ali was kill in 661, the Shia and other Alid parties in Mesopotamia went underground in encounter to the Sunni Caliphates, the Ummayyads (660-749) and the Abbasids. The Ismailis claimed the right of succession through the Prophet's daughter and Ali's wife, Fatima, and a afterward imam named Ismail.

According to Hourani, Hamza believed that "the One Himself [God] was present to human beings and had been in the long run embodied in al-Hakim" (185). After al-Hakim's death in 1021, Hamza's pursual were persecuted by the dominant Ismailis in Cairo. Their missionaries, o

Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1991.

In the late 19th and wee 20th century, Betts says the Druze in Lebanon became "hardy, independent and prosperous farmers," tending their olive and fruit groves on mountain slopes and wheat in the plains of grey Syria and northern Palestine (37).

The Druze in Syria avoided most of the communal friendly fire suffered by their counterparts in Lebanon.

Crose, Kenneth L. "Religions at War." Christianity Today, 5 Nov. 1990, 50-54.

During the post-independence period after 1946, relations between the Druze in Syria and the revolving door Sunni-dominated regimes in capital of Syria were tense, in part because of the loyalty shown by most Druze residents in Palestine to the new State of Israel in the 1948 war. Many Syrian Druze emigrated to Lebanon. Betts says that "it was many years before the Druze had confidence in the capital of Syria government" (96). However, the Baath party and the Syrian army, which controlled Syrian politics in 1960s and 1970s, was supported and infiltrated by the Druze. Relations between the Syrian Druze and the regime of dictator Hafiz al-Asad, who came from another Muslim minority, the Alawis, have been correct, the Druze heavy(a) to secede from Syria at various times to emphasize their solidarity.

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